The bill passed 23-17 along party lines, with Democrats voting for it and Republicans against. The full Assembly, which is also controlled by Democrats, is expected to approve the bill later today.

That would send the measure to the desk of the Republican governor, who has campaigned for a 2.5 percent constitutional cap with far fewer exceptions. Christie has refused to say whether he would sign the Democrats' version, which exempts increases in health care, pension, energy and other costs.

"My father always taught me, don't ever ask somebody to do something you wouldn't do yourself," said Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester), the sponsor of the 2.9 bill. "(Christie) is asking governments to do something he won't do himself — he has not controlled health care, and he has not controlled pension costs."

He said the Democrats' version will not choke local governments while building upon results of the existing 4 percent cap. Average property tax increases last year were 3.3. percent, down from 7 percent earlier in the decade.

"It didn't happen by accident, it happened because the caps were real," Sweeney said in an interview. "Now we're going to tighten the caps even further, and we're going to bring taxes down even further."

An effort by Sen. Joseph Kyrillos (R-Monmouth) to amend the bill to make it resemble Christie's proposal failed on the floor of the Senate. Kyrillos said Sweeney's bill has "far too many exceptions."

"In our districts, when a family is hard-pressed to pay their tax bill or any bill, they don't have an exception ... for health insurance, for gasoline," Kyrillos said during debate. "They make adjustments to their lives. Municipalities and school boards need to make adjustments, revolutionary ones."

Christie's proposal would have to clear legislative committees by July 7 in order to advance toward the November ballot. Sweeney today said that will not happen

"It's not realistic, nor reasonable, nor does it do anything for this year's budget," Sweeney said.